NAACP President and CEO Announces Plan to Step Down from Association at Year’s End

September 08, 2013

Benjamin Todd Jealous will remain in role through December 31, 2013

(Baltimore, MD) – NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous today announced plans to transition out of his role as President and CEO on December 31, 2013. Roslyn M. Brock, Chairman of the NAACP Board of Directors, accepted his formal letter of notice this week.

“We thank President Jealous for his time leading the Association,” stated Brock. “Under his leadership, the NAACP has built a highly competent staff that will carry our mission forward and meet the civil rights challenges of the 21st century. Our board, staff and volunteer leaders throughout the country deeply appreciate his sacrifice, and will continue to implement our game-changing goals for the next half century that include the restoration of Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, implementing Trayvon’s Law, bolstering civic engagement efforts and ensuring our community is enrolled in the Affordable Care Act exchanges.”

“The NAACP has always been the largest civil rights organization in the streets, and today it is also the largest civil rights organization online, on mobile and at the ballot box too,” stated Jealous. “I am proud to leave the Association financially sound, sustainable, focused, and more powerful than ever. Beginning next year, I look forward to pursuing opportunities in academia to train the next generation of leaders and, of course, spending a lot more time with my young family."

In recent years the NAACP has won state and local battles to abolish the death penalty, shrink prison systems, outlaw racial profiling, expand voting rights protections, reform gun laws, close dangerous power plants, expand early childhood education, secure health care coverage for the uninsured, and more.

The Association will continue its work as an ally in the fights for workers’ rights, women's rights, immigrants’ rights, and marriage equality, as well as in the struggle to end the HIV epidemic.

Jealous will remain with the Association through December 31, 2013.

###

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largestnonpartisan civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities. You can read more about the NAACP’s work and our five “Game Changer” issue areas here.